In this episode we expose the TransPacific Partnership, an agreement that has been negotiated in secret over the past 3 years by the Obama Administration. Our guests are Arthur Stamoulis of Citizen’s Trade Campaign and Ben Beachy of Global Trade Watch from Public Citizen. The US is using the TPP to bully smaller Pacific Rim nations into accepting an agreement that goes beyond trade to put provisions in place that give transnational corporations greater power than sovereign nations. It creates a path to go around regulations that have been put in place to protect the environment, labor rights, consumer rights, internet privacy and economic stability. The Obama Administration is hinting that it will push for Fast Track, now referred to as Trade Promotion Authority, in Congress which would subvert a democratic process to review and pass the TPP. There are numerous opportunities to expose and oppose the TPP and prevent it from becoming law. Visit FlushtheTPP.org.

Arthur Stamoulis: is Executive Director of Citizens Trade Campaign which was founded in 1992 as a national coalition of organizations to oppose NAFTA. CTC is one of the organizations leading the fight to expose and oppose the TPP. They recently sent a letter to Congress opposing Fast Track that was signed by 400 organizations. Visit CitizensTrade.org

Ben Beachy: is Research Director with Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. He investigates the impacts and implications of U.S. trade policy on jobs, public interest regulation, financial stability and democratic policymaking. Before joining Global Trade Watch, Beachy analyzed the impacts of U.S. trade, aid, and lending policies in Latin America for six years as a Nicaragua-based policy analyst and as a D.C.-based National Organizer for Witness for Peace. He has also worked as a visiting research fellow with Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute, investment analyst for the Tellus Institute in Boston, agriculture researcher for ActionAid in India and labor rights investigator for the Worker Rights Consortium in Central America. Beachy’s published articles have focused on post-food crisis trade policy, the impacts of U.S. and IMF policies in Latin America and new economic indicators to supplement GDP. Beachy received a B.A. from Goshen College and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Visit Global Trade Watch and the Eyes on Trade Blog.

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